South Alabama Softball Takes on THE SPRING GAMES in Madeira Beach Florida

This past weekend, February 28 through March 1, the South Alabama Jaguars hit the road again for another away tournament in Madeira Beach Florida. The tournament was called The Spring Games, Division 1 softball, located at ROC Softball Complex in the city of Madeira Beach Florida. The South Alabama Jaguars flew down on Thursday, February 27, and had the chance to practice on the playing fields to get a feel for the playing surface. We got to throw, take ground balls, hit, do pitching and catching drills, and have a small live session during the evening practice for batters to see live pitching, fielders to read bat angle, and pitchers to get live batters swinging. The following three days the Jags participated in a total of five games competing against teams from across the country. From the previous blog post you read that the Jags had a struggling and rough opening tournament down in Clearwater Florida. This tournament wasn’t perfect for the Jags, but it was an improvement and a step in the right directions for me and the team. The teams that the Jags faced were Seaton Hall, Middle Tennessee, Iowa, Miami Ohio, and Florida Atlantic. The first set of games for the Jags was on Friday, February 28, against Seaton Hall and Middle Tennessee. Seaton Hall University is located in South Orange New Jersey, is in the Big East conference, and has a mascot of a pirate. The game against Seaton Hall was a very high scoring competition for both teams. Each going back in forth with the score for the complete 7 innings. The pirates came out on top in the 7 innings with the final score being 9 to 7, Jags fall the first game of the tournament. Game two of Friday was against Middle Tennessee. Middle Tennessee State University is located in Murfreesboro Tennessee, is in the USA conference, and has a blue raider for a mascot. Compared to the first game of the day for the jaguars, this one was not as high scoring. The final for game two was 3 to 0 with another fall for the Jags and a win for the blue raiders. Heading into day two of The Spring Games tournament, February 29, the South Alabama Jaguars are set up to play another pair of games. The match ups were against Iowa and Miami Ohio. First pitch of Game one of the days was for Iowa. The University of Iowa is located in Iowa City Iowa, is in the Big 10 Conference, and has a hawk as the mascot. This was by far the best team at the tournament and the Jags finally broke their losing streak and got a solid team win. The final score was 3 to 2, a walk off base hit scored the winning run in the 7 inning to win the game for the Jags. On to game two of the Saturday pair of games for the Jags was against Miami Ohio. Miami University (Ohio)  is located in Oxford Ohio, is in the Mid-American conference, and has a swooping Redhawk as their mascot. The thrill of the big win did not last long for the Jags, they fell to the RedHawks 3 to 2 in the final game on Saturday. For the last game of The Spring Games tournament, on Sunday, March 1, the Jags were set to play Florida Atlantic. Florida Atlantic University is located in Boca Raton Florida, is in the USA conference, and has a mascot of an owl. This was another great team win for the South Alabama Jaguars as they defeat the owls 3 to 2 in a total of 9 innings. The extra inning game was a thriller as the Jags had to fight and pull out their second win of the tournament. Overall, the South Alabama Jags were 2-3 on the weekend. They didn’t do has great as they hoped, but it was a solid weekend for the girls to get better and move forward into this coming up weekend starting their first conference play against App State. Stay tuned for more updates on the softball season and as always, GO JAGS!!!